Claire Foy a Lady in Red at Girl in Spider’s Web New York City Premiere (Photos!)

Claire Foy and Director Fede Alvarez at the Girl in the Spider’s Web premiere in New York City. (Photo: Sony Pictures)

Claire Foy, Sverrir Gudnason and model-turned-actress Andreja Pejic were among the cast members who turned out for the New York City premiere of “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” the first sequel to “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” not based on Stieg Larsson’s crime series.

The new film is based on David Lagercrantz’s novel of the same name. It’s been billed as the fourth in the Millennium Series trilogy of crime novels written by Larsson.

But that’s where the comparison ends. Larsson’s works were contemplative crime thrillers that probed Sweden’s dark underbelly of corporate oligarchs steeped in the nation’s flirtation with Fascism in World War II.

Lagercrantz’s book is less about Swedish politics and more about action-adventure, with its fair share of cliche car chases and stunts.

Foy takes over the role of hacker heroine Lisbeth Salander from Rooney Mara, who reprised the character made iconic by Swedish actress Noomi Rapace in three Swedish films.

Foy felt a special connection with the character. “I couldn’t have played this part without respecting her and protecting her,” during nude sex scenes, she told The Hollywood Reporter.

In this film, Salander emerges as a full-fledged, female action-adventure hero. Previous films focused on investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist, played by Gudnason now and Daniel Craig in 2012’s “Dragon Tattoo.” Michael Nyqvist played the part in the Swedish films.

Director Fede Alvarez said he gave Foy total leeway to shape the character.

“Salander means a lot to a lot of people, and, for me at least, on my side, it was about really listening to [Foy], really listening to her as a female actress… making sure [Salander] was someone not shaped by my, a man’s, imagination,” he said at the premiere.

Pejic, a transgender model, plays Salander’s lover, which seems a bit timid. The model has transitioned to female and should have been paired with a man.

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TheImproper Staff

Keith Girard is Editor and Pubilsher of TheImproper, New York City’s cutting edge arts, entertainment pop culture and lifestyle Web magazine. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of Billboard magazine and a reporter for the Washington Post among other media positions.